Online trading of financial instruments such as equities (i.e., stocks) has become increasingly popular. In order to facilitate such trading, systems have been developed to provide data streams of real time exchange market data such as BLOOMBERG™ and REUTERS™. Systems have further been developed to accept this exchange data into electronic spreadsheets and to provide a link from the spreadsheet to exchange trading systems. One such system is known as AUTOMATE™ provided by GL™.
One other such trading system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,134,535 to Belzberg. Belzberg discloses an automated trading system to launch a trading order to the order entry system of a stock exchange for stocks listed on the stock exchange. The system monitors real-time data feeds for a list of stocks and their prices that are recorded and displayed to a user in a spreadsheet format on a personal computer. When the composite price of the list of stocks conforms to certain predetermined parameters, the list is transformed into an order, which is immediately sent to an exchange order entry system.
One further trading system is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,893,079 to Cwenar. Cwenar discloses a system where an external data interface receives and processes real-time investment information from outside sources. The real-time data is processed and stored on a central server. Multiple users have access to the data through a spreadsheet interface. The system can be used to effect trades and monitor proposed trades for compliance with laws, rules, and preferences. A group of securities can be combined into “baskets”. Baskets can also be a single fund or group of funds combined for purposes of transactions.